[OpenOffice] How to print (export) a PDF in a different paper size?

Here i am creating a document the size of an A5 in portrait orientation. That's the size when you take an A4 paper, hold it in landscape orientation, then fold it vertically in the middle; only now you've got two pieces of A5 in portrait. Is that twisting your brains?

Then here i am again, without success trying to print two portrait-A5 pages on a single landscape-A4 paper. The solution came with a little googling around. Here's how...

First you need to setup a virtual printer. If you've already have this setup then go to Part C.

Part A: Checking for a virtual printer

1. A much shorter + simpler way of checking for a printer is from the panel, System > Administration > Printing. See Pic 1.

Pic 1 - Refer Step 1. Checking the presence of printer(s).

A new window similar to Pic 2 will appear. In it are shown the printers connected to your laptop, be it virtual or physical printers.

Pic 2 - Refer Step 1. No printers yet.

As you can see in Pic 2, no printer is connected to my laptop yet. You can see what it will look like in Pic 15 when a printer is connected; in this case it will be our virtual printer as will be explained in Part B.

2. Since we're going to use OpenOffice.org Writer, here's how to check from within Writer itself. To run Writer, from the panel, Applications > Office > OpenOffice.org Word Processor. See Pic 3.

Pic 3 - Refer Step 1. Running OpenOffice.org Writer.

3. To check for the printer, from the toolbar click File > Printer Settings.... See Pic 4.

Pic 4 - Refer Step 3. Running the pop-up for printer settings.

4. In the Printer Setup pop-up window similar to Pic 5, in the Name drop-down list you can see the name(s) of the printer(s). Currently mine's Generic Printer *i don't exactly know what it means :p*.

Once that is done, you'll see the Synaptic Package Manager window similar to Pic 8.

Pic 8 - Refer Step 6. The Synaptic Package Manager window.

7. In the Synaptic Package Manager window, type this:

cups-pdf

in the Quick Search field. You'll see the filtered results similar to Pic 9.

Pic 9 - Refer Step 7. Filtered results for the term cups-pdf.

8. Referring to Pic 9, in the filtered results, there is a package named cups-pdf. To its leftmost will be a white box in the S column.

Click that white box. A pop-up menu similar to Pic 10 appears. Select the option Mark for Installation.

Pic 10 - Refer Step 8. Marking CUPS-PDF for installation.

The previously-white box will now have a tick inside it, as seen in Pic 11.

Pic 11 - Refer Step 8 and 9.

9. Referring to Pic 11, click the button in the toolbar labeled Apply.

A Summary pop-up window similar to Pic 12 appears. To see the list of item(s) to be installed, click the triangle next to To be installed. Click the Apply button to proceed with the installation.

If for some reasons there are other packages required for installation along with CUPS-PDF, my suggestion is to accept them. However if you're unsure, the safe step is to cancel the installation and look for information about those packages :). Better safe than sorry!

Pic 12 - Refer Step 9. Summarising packages to be installed.

Pic 13 shows the installation progress taking place. Once the installation process is done, the previously empty white box (Pic 9) is now a green-filled box, see Pic 14.

Pic 13 - Refer Step 9. Installation in progress.

Pic 14 - Refer Step 9. CUPS-PDF is now in the system!

A little note here. From online reads about CUPS-PDF, it is mentioned that you need to create a folder named PDF in your Home Folder before proceeding to create your PDF file. The latest news is: you don't have to do that any more! Because that folder-creating step has been eliminated. The folder will be auto-created along with your PDF file in it! i've created a PDF file without having a folder named PDF in my Home Folder :)

The Print pop-up window similar to Pic 21 appears. Click the button Properties....

Pic 21 - Refer Step 14. Prior to printing.

The Properties of PDF pop-up window similar to Pic 22 appears. Set the Paper size to be the size of the resulting PDF document. Set the Orientation as well. Then click OK. i want mine to be an A4 in landscape.

When you come back to the Print pop-up window in Pic 21, click OK. Another pop-up similar to Pic 23 will appear, probably a few seconds depending on your document complexity.

Pic 23 - Refer Step 14. Printing in progress.

15. When the Printing... pop-up (Pic 23) disappears, check for your PDF file. From the panel, go to Places > Home Folder, as shown in Pic 24. Inside your Home Folder will be a PDF folder as shown in Pic 25. Inside the PDF folder will be your PDF file.

Initially, the document came out right, only it was rotated to be portrait (all the writings were on their side). Simply using PDF-Shuffler to rotate them to be in landscape (all writings were right-side up).